Leucocyte depletion of blood components - guidelines of the blood transfusion services of South Africa

No Abstract. South African Medical Journal Vol. 96(5) 2006: 395-39

Ductile deformation in alumina ceramics under quasi-static to dynamic contact impact

Florescence spectroscopy and TEM has been used to study the ductile deformation of alumina ceramics underneath an impact contact. The contact was generated by a spherical tungsten carbide indenter under quasi-static, drop weight and ballistic loading conditions. In all circumstances, a ductile deformation region containing dislocations developed below each contact impression. The dislocation density distribution complies to the shear stress distribution predicted by the Hertzian contact model. Ballistic loading resulted in secondary material flow, giving a maximum dislocation density 5-10 times higher than that dictated by the Hertzian contact model. Quantification of dislocation density distribution allowed a critical shear stress for dislocation generation to be estimated. In this alumina ceramic, the critical shear stress is estimated as 2.55 ± 0.10 GPa. Cold work hardening and comminution under dynamic loading are discussed as possible mechanisms for the enhanced dislocation activity under dynamic impact

The Detection and Policing of Gun Crime: Challenges to the Effective Policing of Gun Crime in Europe

Despite a shared understanding across the EU that access to firearms by the general public should be restricted, detailed legislation regarding the ownership, use and trade of firearms varies between EU member states. It is unclear however, how such variations impact on the policing of gun enabled crime. By using qualitative data generated from interviews with police, policy and decision makers from thirteen European countries, the authors of this article aim to determine how stakeholders perceive that national variations in firearms legislation impact on the policing of gun enabled crime within and across EU countries. Four main themes were identified from the qualitative data: disparities in Legislation, disparities in Priority given and the Resources allocated to investigations into gun enabled crime as well as Interventions. Due to the aforementioned disparities, cross-national investigations into incidents of gun crime are at risk of remaining impaired in their effectiveness. Therefore, more legislative coherency as well as sustainable long-term interventions will be needed to successfully reduce ownership and use of firearms in the criminal world. In this context, a departure from an exclusive use of an economic model of gun crime is recommended to allow for a better understanding of the dynamics of the black gun market

Cephalopod genomics: a plan of strategies and organization

The Cephalopod Sequencing Consortium (CephSeq Consortium) was established at a NESCent Catalysis Group Meeting, "Paths to Cephalopod Genomics-Strategies, Choices, Organization," held in Durham, North Carolina, USA on May 24-27, 2012. Twenty-eight participants representing nine countries (Austria, Australia, China, Denmark, France, Italy, Japan, Spain and the USA) met to address the pressing need for genome sequencing of cephalopod mollusks. This group, drawn from cephalopod biologists, neuroscientists, developmental and evolutionary biologists, materials scientists, bioinformaticians and researchers active in sequencing, assembling and annotating genomes, agreed on a set of cephalopod species of particular importance for initial sequencing and developed strategies and an organization (CephSeq Consortium) to promote this sequencing. The conclusions and recommendations of this meeting are described in this white paper

Cephalopod genomics : a plan of strategies and organization

© The Author(s), 2012. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Standards in Genomic Sciences 7 (2012): 175-188, doi:10.4056/sigs.3136559.The Cephalopod Sequencing Consortium (CephSeq Consortium) was established at a NESCent Catalysis Group Meeting, “Paths to Cephalopod Genomics- Strategies, Choices, Organization,” held in Durham, North Carolina, USA on May 24-27, 2012. Twenty-eight participants representing nine countries (Austria, Australia, China, Denmark, France, Italy, Japan, Spain and the USA) met to address the pressing need for genome sequencing of cephalopod molluscs. This group, drawn from cephalopod biologists, neuroscientists, developmental and evolutionary biologists, materials scientists, bioinformaticians and researchers active in sequencing, assembling and annotating genomes, agreed on a set of cephalopod species of particular importance for initial sequencing and developed strategies and an organization (CephSeq Consortium) to promote this sequencing. The conclusions and recommendations of this meeting are described in this White Paper.The Catalysis Group Meeting was supported by the National Science Foundation through the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) under grant number NSF #EF-0905606

Assessment of elliptic flame front propagation characteristics of iso-octane, gasoline, M85 and E85 in an optical engine

Premixed fuel–air flame propagation is investigated in a single-cylinder, spark-ignited, four-stroke optical test engine using high-speed imaging. Circles and ellipses are fitted onto image projections of visible light emitted by the flames. The images are subsequently analysed to statistically evaluate: flame area; flame speed; centroid; perimeter; and various flame-shape descriptors. Results are presented for gasoline, isooctane, E85 and M85. The experiments were conducted at stoichiometric conditions for each fuel, at two engine speeds of 1200 rpm (rpm) and 1500 rpm, which are at 40% and 50% of rated engine speed. Furthermore, different fuel and speed sets were investigated under two compression ratios (CR: 5.00 and 8.14). Statistical tools were used to analyse the large number of data obtained, and it was found that flame speed distribution showed agreement with the normal distribution. Comparison of results assuming spherical and non-isotropic propagation of flames indicate non-isotropic flame propagation should be considered for the description of in-cylinder processes with higher accuracy. The high temporal resolution of the sequence of images allowed observation of the spark-ignition delay process. The results indicate that gasoline and isooctane have somewhat similar flame propagation behaviour. Additional differences between these fuels and E85 and M85 were also recorded and identified

Understanding and development of ballistic protective materials

Understanding and development of ballistic protective material

The wheat problem, based on remarks made in the presidential address to the British Association at Bristol in 1898;

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